What is Your Value and Worth?

byDeborah PenneronApril 12, 2015

I am relatively new in the world of web design so for a time I’ve been doing what I’ve always done when learning something. I have [grossly] undervalued what I bring to the table because I don’t have the full mastery of the technical skills that someone who has been creating with code (or whatever it is I happen to be learning at the time) longer than I have. So I have honed in sometimes apologetically, on what I don’t have rather than what I do have.

That is changing! Here’s a small part of what (else) I do bring to the table:

My life experience of 59 years as a human female

A deep love of web design as a mode of creative expression

Intense curiosity

A love of learning

Powerfully developed intuition

26 years of active nursing practice

The ability to read what is in the room.

The ability to see the big picture and plan with it in mind

A crazy love for the edge of the envelope

The ability to add 2 plus 2 and come up with an exponentially larger number

More and more as I work with my clients, I am finding that I love connecting with them and then expressing that into the websites I am creating for them. There is nothing more exciting than figuring out how to get it to work. [Well, maybe a couple things … ]

But what I’ve done is assume that my work is not as valuable as someone who has been honing their craft of web design from the time they were wee little beings. On one level that is accurate. My technical work does take longer … for now.

On a deeper level, however, I bring the value and worth everything I’ve ever learned about connection, intuitive understanding and over 40 years of connecting with patients and clients, friends, lovers and people in general.

For example, instead of taking the information “in the room” and bringing that to bear on how I relate to a client as their nurse or RSM practitioner, I am tuned into the information in the room, the space of our interaction that is the creation of my client’s website. I am tuned in as much …maybe more … to what my clients do not say as to what they do say … the energy of the words speaks as loudly or softly as the words.

I bring my full attention to the client with whom I am currently working. [which is why it feels a bit like ‘til death do us part 😉 ] This so much fun for me. Our project is gestating constantly from the time I take it on and I am in process of drawing to me the information and resources that will bring it to life.

I love connecting with the right clients to bring expression to their creative dreams. The right client is key here.

I am learning to ask myself up front “Am I willing to go through and to process through whatever it takes to complete this project with this client.?” A valid question since for the purposes of the project, I am married to the client until completion of project do you part.

We tend to believe that while we are learning a thing, we have to settle. It’s how most of us have seen it work in most of our relationships.

As a nurse I didn’t have a ton of say over who showed up my unit needing my care. If they showed up, and its my turn to admit, I got em. Period.

As a web designer, I do get to decide. That excites me! It is beautiful when the relationship is mutual, collaborative, resonant and stretches the limits of what I can do.

So I am curious. What make a great client match for you? Do you settle? Why or why not?